Chamber and committees

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has awarded £5 million to Scrabster Harbour Trust and both HIE and Scottish Enterprise are involved in detailed ongoing negotiations with a number of site owners. In parallel with activities associated with the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund (NRIF), SE and SDI have been actively involved in the work undertaken to secure the recent offshore wind testing related investments announced by Gamesa, SSE and Doosan. Although no funding awards have been made from the NRIF to date, announcements are anticipated in the near future.

The Scottish Government has identified a range of improvements to the Scotland Bill for discussion with the UK Government.

Consideration is currently underway to determine the most efficient way of procuring and funding the new electric trains for the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme. These new trains are required to deliver the Scottish Government's ambitious railway electrification programme in 2016.

A date has not yet been agreed for the next meeting of the Scottish Private Rented Sector Strategy Group.

A meeting will be held in summer 2011, continuing the group’s work aimed at stimulating growth in the private rented sector and improving its overall quality.

After parliamentary approval of the orders for the M8 scheme, the affirmative process has now passed without any objections being received. It is anticipated that the procurement process will commence towards the end of this year and that funding will be secured under the government's non-profit distributing form of contract.

We will continue to progress the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) with a view to bringing forward for construction as soon as the legal challenges surrounding the AWPR are resolved.

The project will be procured through a non-profit distributing model contract. Funding will be sought from the market by bidders as part of the tender process.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with local authorities through the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). While no discussions with individual local authorities have taken place, COSLA is a key partner in developing policy and practice in a range of housing and antisocial behaviour matters. This includes our approach to tackling antisocial behaviour set out in Promoting Positive Outcomes which was published jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA in March 2009.

The national strategy on housing for older people is due to be published in December 2011.

The Scottish Government's consultation, Building A Hydro Nation, on how Scotland should develop as a hydro nation and the role of Scottish Water, within that closed on 9 March 2011. The responses are being analysed and the Scottish Government will set out its proposals in due course.

The Scottish Government collates the estimated completion dates for affordable homes that the Scottish Government helps fund. The estimated completions in each local authority area for 2011-12 broken down by (a) housing association, (b) housing co-operative and (c) by local authority are set out in the table below. These are expected figures which may change over the course of the year due to possible delays in some projects starting on site or delays to anticipated completions following for example poor weather. The figures exclude affordable housing projects by other developers and are based on the projects that have been approved to date.

Estimated Completions 2011-12